The 3rd Annual, 2016 Ameripolitan Awards have announced their 2016 nominees. Scheduled to transpire on February 16, 2016 at the historic Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin, it will be hosted by Western Swing legend Ray Benson, and feature performances by many of the nominees and other notables from the “Ameripolitan” realm.

Founded three years ago by staunch country traditionalist Dale Watson after the “Old Farts & Jackasses” comments of Blake Shelton, the Ameripolitan Awards was Dale’s answer to the concern of so many artists doing their best to keep roots traditions alive going unrecognized by the rest of the country music industry. Since the first year, the awards have grown from a ballroom in a hotel in Austin to the Paramount where people from around the country travel to take part in the festivities. The Ameripolitan Music Awards acknowledges “Artists whose music honors tradition while demonstrating exceptional originality, creativity, and musicianship,” and is a 501(c)3 organization.

This year voting for the nominees will begin on November 26th, and can happen one of two ways: on Ameripolitan.com, or through a new app designed by Ballot Blaster. The app will cost $1.99, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Fender Music Foundation.

“We love the irony of using a modern app for a genre of music with historic roots,” says Dale Watson. “There’s a practicality to it, but the most exciting aspect is offering voters fresh, exciting content. It’s not just voting it’s an experience. Users can learn more about each nominee, discover new music and explore artists they might not otherwise know. Our friend Richard at Ballot Blaster worked hard with us to create something new for Ameripolitan fans.”

One of the reasons I wanted to post this is these nominee lists can be a great study sheet for new artists to check out. There’s a few here I don’t know, and I look forward to learning about them before February. Some of the nominees have been featured here before. Hopefully I can feature a few more.

Yes! Knoxville’s weekly show on the Outlaw station is great! I prefer Hillbilly Jim’s show slightly more because there’s less stoner laughter, but the music selections (and stories) on both shows are excellent.

Thanks for putting this up. Saw a lot of names I never heard of before. Will have to check them out. I did have to laugh at the female rockabilly catagory though. Someone get these poor girls a last name! And two of them end with dee!

Cool to see “Spacey” Casey Prestwoods name on the list. I have not paid attention to what he’s been doing since he stopped playing with Drag The River. Off to the google to find out about CP and the Burning Angels…